With the increasing demand for wind turbines of higher power and thus larger dimensions of the main components, such as tower, nacelle, and rotor blades, the permissible limits for vehicle dimensions have been reached, especially the maximum height of 4 meters. The boundaries dictated by the logistical infrastructure, such as clear height under bridges, also make it necessary to divide tower sections with more than roughly 4 meters diameter into several pieces.
The utility model DE 203 21 855 U1 describes a steel tower for a wind turbine including a number of cylindrical or conical tower sections, where at least its broader sections are subdivided into two or more elongated shell segments which are combined into a complete tower section via vertical flanges, which are fastened to each other by a plurality of bolts, the shells also being provided with upper and lower horizontal flanges in order to allow the tower sections to be connected to each other.
US 2008/0256892 shows a wind turbine tower with a load-bearing outer tower wall, having an encircling, outer boundary surface and consisting of a plurality of wall sections, each of which has a middle section and two edge sections running in the longitudinal direction of the tower, being provided with a plurality of connection boreholes, while the surfaces defined by the edge sections run along the outer boundary surface or at a constant distance from it, and the connection boreholes are oriented transversely to the outer boundary surface.
From US 2013/0081350 there is known a tower with an adapter piece as well as a method of making a tower, wherein a lower tubular tower section of concrete and an upper tubular tower section of steel are provided. Such hybrid towers are preferred at present for the erecting of especially tall wind turbine towers, since large diameters are possible with the lower concrete structure and conventional wind turbine towers can be set atop the lower tower structure in order to achieve greater heights and thus better wind utilization.
From US 2017/0122292 there is known a method for making a tower section for the tower of a wind turbine in which the tower section is subdivided into section segments in the tower lengthwise direction. The section segments are at first created by severing the tower wall and afterwards joined to each other once more with the aid of flanges.